Gifted & Blessed – Heard And Unheard LP [39156031]

Gifted & Blessed returns with ‘Heard and Unheard’, an album that distills years of making music in a variety of styles and under different names into a singular statement. In addition to producing electronic music as Gifted & Blessed since the early 2000s, Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker has dabbled with many other aliases over the years: as Frankie Reyes, he explores his Puerto Rican heritage by playing Latin standards and originals on vintage keyboard instruments; as The Abstract Eye and The Reflektor, he creates dancefloor anthems with electronic hardware; and as GB and Julian Abelar, he’s released sample-based productions and techno adjacent dance music.

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Gifted & Blessed – Heard And Unheard LP [39156031]

Moritz von Oswald – Silencio LP [TRESOR339LP]

What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On ‘Silencio’, his latest album for Tresor Records, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept. Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light & ethereal and dark & dissonant. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald’s repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms.

vinyl / CD

Moritz von Oswald – Silencio LP [TRESOR339LP]

Actress – LXXXVIII LP [ZEN295]

‘LXXXVIII’ is the ninth Actress album to be created by Actress (Darren Cunningham) and the very first presentation of Actress’ voyage into luxury sonics.
A lifetime in the making, ‘LXXXVIII’ is the culmination of 25 years’ honing mind-shorting, soul-igniting audio infusions for dance floors, rave dens, festivals, and concert halls. ‘LXXXVIII’ pays dividends to meditate on an instrumental facet of its creation: game theory. Indeed, deep strategic thinking – more readily associated with economics and chess than artistic practice – was fundamental to Actress’ process as ‘LXXXVIII’ was channelled into existence.

vinyl / CD

Actress – LXXXVIII LP [ZEN295]

Suzanne Ciani & Jonathan Fitoussi – Golden Apples Of The Sun LP [OBL06]

Obliques and Atmospheric present their new album “Golden Apples of the Sun”. It is the result of close cooperation between Suzanne Ciani and Jonathan Fitoussi. The American electronic music pioneer has joined the French composer to sign a four-hand album around mythical synthesizers like Buchla, Moog and Ems. Mainly recorded in California, facing the Pacific Ocean, the white sound of synthesizers mixes constantly with the sound of the waves and wind. The music generated is directly blended with the surrounding elements of nature. It is both organic and live, hypnotic and rhythmical, powerful and dreamlike.

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Suzanne Ciani & Jonathan Fitoussi – Golden Apples Of The Sun LP [OBL06]

Philipp Otterbach – Correct Me If I Am Incorrectly You LP [OFFEN028]

Berlin based Philipp Otterbach debuts on Offen with a seven tracks album, “Correct Me If I Am Incorrectly You”. Post-music phantasmagoria for the world in which the past became more unpredictable than the future. Deconstructed entertainment for hopeless romantics and testament to Otterbach’s unique artistic language.

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Philipp Otterbach – Correct Me If I Am Incorrectly You LP [OFFEN028]

VC-118A – Waves Of Change LP [157DSR]

On his fifth album as VC-118A, Samuel van Dijk is using his evolved electro practice to explore the notion of change – a universal constant which keeps us barreling towards unknown futures. 2021’s Spiritual Machines found van Dijk edging his sound into downtempo and experimental pastures. On the follow-up, Waves of Change, crooked machine rhythms and richly developed tones and textures spool from his trusted bank of outboard tools, while a subtle drop in tempo widens the space for the atmospheric sound design to weave its magic. Balancing the disciplines of machine-powered sequencing and hand-shaped sound to render his ideas in sonic form, the continued evolution of VC-118A results in another mesmerizing record steeped in craft and loaded with intention.

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VC-118A – Waves Of Change LP [157DSR]

Shakkatam – Run [HVN063]

Back in 2017 Tear Apart Tapes released “Run”, a song by Shakkatam. John Talabot immediately connected with it and played it as the closing in many of his dj sets. Hivern Discs now presents “Run” in a new context, with three covers from artists we admire: Cucina Povera, Céline Gillain and Dania.

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Shakkatam – Run [HVN063]

Max Schreiber – Discreet 808 Music [DM08]

Usually going under the moniker Mule Driver, Harel Schrieber has dedicated a great deal of his life’s work to studying and exploring the wonders of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, celebrating its’ rhythms to a large extent and since 2011 releasing exclusive material for the annual 808 day, which occurs every August 8th. For this years “808 birthday” Max Schreiber utilize and treat the 808 differently delivering two experimental and drone oriented works, creating an ambient soundscapes and atmosphere. Daniel Heidebrecht aka Swiss Arrow contributes a Masked-Cocoon dark ambient-drone remix for the B2 track which makes this release even more intriguing.

Max Schreiber – Discreet 808 Music [DM08]

Llimbs – Midnight Amber [VEYL037]

Veyl presents an experimental sonic experience from Llimbs, the project of Hagen Ebejer. He began making music in the early 2000’s and started Llimbs in 2016 and now he arrives on Veyl with “Midnight Amber”, an 8-track album which fully realizes the Llimbs sound and vision. Inspired by dark and experimental sounds, “Midnight Amber” is a tour de force of genre-bending compositions, conjured using downtempo and dreamlike sounds which explore both the organic and digital. The result is an undefinable affair which is both haunting and infectious at once.

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Llimbs – Midnight Amber [VEYL037]

Legowelt – Ambient Trip Commander Original Soundtrack [NW038] [Free Download]

“Ambient Trip Commander” is a hand drawn/painted feature animation film made by Danny Wolfers. The film premiered on 28th of May 2022 at the EYE film Museum in Amsterdam Holland with a live soundtrack on synths by Legowelt. This is the soundtrack album of my 2022 Ambient Trip Commander animation film on cassette tape and digital.

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Continue reading “Legowelt – Ambient Trip Commander Original Soundtrack [NW038] [Free Download]”
Legowelt – Ambient Trip Commander Original Soundtrack [NW038] [Free Download]

Philipp Otterbach – The Dahlem Diaries LP [MFM063]

The new LP by Krefeld-born, Berlin-based artist Philipp Otterbach entitled ‘The Dahlem Diaries’. Recorded in a little-visited corner of the German capital, ‘The Dahlem Diaries’ is a convergence of ideas, sketches and tracks, both old and new, most of which were produced between 2020-2022. Whilst eerie atmospheres, electronics and drums have played a pivotal role in Philipp’s earlier releases, his latest is a rather more introspective affair, in which the guitar takes a leading role. A role Otterbach uses to quietly bring light and hope to his music. Combined with a strong use of effects and field recordings, ‘The Dahlem Diaries’ feels somewhat like a scene or fragment from a story, in which the narrative remains undefined. It is a playful album that is something of a blurred underwater adventure, sounding as bright as it is hazy, even psychedelic at times, yet with an almost melancholic positivity. 

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Philipp Otterbach – The Dahlem Diaries LP [MFM063]

Dorisburg & Sebastian Mullaert – That Who Remembers LP [SPAZIO027]

To prepare for “That Who Remembers”, Dorisburg (aka Alexander Berg) and Sebastian Mullaert set up their equipment in Malmo’s empty Inkonst venue, spending several days immersed in its atmosphere, using the lights, smoke machine, and Soundsystem to create an authentic club environment where they could freely improvise. The result is a suite of free-flowing sounds that draws on both artists’ backgrounds in reduced techno and ambient music, sailing thoughtfully through near-future landscapes and punctuating them with shimmering, kosmische textures, decaying sonic memories, and fragile rhythms. Not dance music exactly, it’s music that instead considers the spirit of an empty dancefloor, wondering which elements might remain when feet have left the building entirely.

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Dorisburg & Sebastian Mullaert – That Who Remembers LP [SPAZIO027]

Om Unit + TM404 – In The Afterworld LP [ATLP-17]

Om Unit and TM404 have both been researching production and compositional elements in the crosshairs of dub and acid for the last few years – Om Unit most notably with his Acid Dub Studies 1 & 2, and TM404 with his Acidub album in particular.

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Om Unit + TM404 – In The Afterworld LP [ATLP-17]

DYL – groove 15 [OUT017]

groove 15 is the final release in a series dedicated to attempts to combine ambient with footwork and 160bpm. The person responsible for closing this three-cassette series is Romanian producer Eduard Costea, known as DYL. In his work, he creates minimalist drum & bass structures, which he combines with illustrative music and atmospheric ambient. However, he does not limit himself to these aesthetics, freely changing tempos and moods.

DYL – groove 15 [OUT017]

Kaukolampi – Inside The Sphere [OMLP26]

Optimo Music continue to dazzle with their increasing experimentation, this time welcoming Finnish producer and K-X-P frontman Timo Kaukolampi to the fore. Exploring the concept of sound as a physical and spatial phenomenon, the LP explores Kaukolampi’s idea of “the sphere”: his metaphysical and/or musical analogy for being subject to an undetectable outside force, as if being manipulated by an unseen cult. Hypnotic, eerie grooves play out in a muted, time-crystalline fashion, all tracks evoking the feeling of being locked in spherical amber, unwitting.

vinyl / CD

Kaukolampi – Inside The Sphere [OMLP26]

Dressel Amorosi – Buio In Sala [SPE79]

The new digital single from Italian duo Dressel Amorosi, like many of their previous productions, is perfect as a theme for the soundtrack of an imaginary film inspired by the great Italian horror films of the 70s and 80s. Indeed, it has all the sonic ingredients of that fascinating and yet disquieting world and its inextricable mixture of suspense, dream and adventure. The theme starts at the piano, originating from a sweet but haunting melody that seems to evoke distant memories, and then developing into a brilliant arrangement that combines the warmth of the prog bass played by Federico Amorosi (former bassist of Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin and a recurring collaborator of composer Fabio Frizzi) and the coldness of the razor-sharp synths played by Heinrich Dressel (aka electronic music composer Valerio Lombardozzi).

Dressel Amorosi – Buio In Sala [SPE79]

Alchemulator – A Lonely Larper on LARPA net [NW035] [FREE DOWNLOAD]

This is the follow up the 2021 Alchemulator – “Larping At Fairsnake Hamlet” album that was released on Hunger! records. The sound goes in a bit of a different direction, the cheap digital FM homekeyboard is replaced with simple FM synths, old “obsolete’ samplers and some other stuff. There are a lot of vocals and experiments with them. I would describe them as synthesizer ballads…or hauntological hypnogogic synthesizer folk songs….a bit of a devotional psychedelic spacejazz influence. Instruments used: AKAI X7000, S900, Yamaha DX100, Yamaha DX21, Arturia Microfreak, Korg Microstation, Yamaha PSR373, Alesis Quadraverb, Alesis Midiverb II ZOOM mS70CdR, zILog Vocoder, Soundcraft Mixing desk, computer running Ableton Live.

Alchemulator – A Lonely Larper on LARPA net [NW035] [FREE DOWNLOAD]